Ascendo - Song Alibis

1979

Band's Comments Lyrics

The Raft: Can you isolate a song that is one of your purest songs....by "pure" I mean the point at which all of your influences, art and literature, and life and family came into perfect confluence?
Billy: "I think that there's probably only been a few, a handful. I would say that Disarm on Siamese Dream, 1979 on Mellon Collie and Stand Inside Your Love on MACHINA, I'm sure there's a few more, but there's a harmony in those things that to me is awestriking, 'cause I don't really understand where that balance or that harmony comes from, 'cause it certainly didn't come from me." The Raft.

Billy: I feel very naked telling all these stories. Um, 1979 was the last song written for Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. And um, as the story goes, um, the idea had been kicking around for a while. It didn't have any words except I believe, "Shakedown 1979." [chuckles] It's always the one line. And uh, we really were getting down to the end of the album and uh, there really wasn't a lot of time left and we were sort of checking the list to see if the songs we still had to work on and Flood who was producing the album, I said "I really think this song has a lot of potential" and he said "well, you've got basically 24 hours to make it happen, so either come in here tomorrow and make this song happen or, or it's not going to be on the album." So I went home that night and um, and I spent that night and the next morning writing the lyrics. I did a demo at home, I came in the next day and we did an acoustic version um, with a slightly different arrangement but basically the same song. And um, it's just one of those moments where you know that the song is a special song. And um, I can't really say why I picked the year 1979, I mean, it's as good as any other year I suppose, um, plus it sounds good in a rhyme scheme. But um, sometimes when I write a song I see a picture in my head. For some reason it's this sort of obscure memory that I have and the memory I had for this particular song was I was about 18 years old and I was driving down the road near my home and it was really heavily raining as only it can seem to rain in a gloomy way in Illinois. And I remember just sitting at a traffic light and um, and that's the memory. And I don't know why that memory sort of stayed but that's the memory I wrote the song from. That sort of feeling of um, sitting in a car at a traffic light. I know it doesn't sound very glamorous but it emotionally conotates something for me, sort of a feeling of waiting for something to happen and not being quite there yet, but it's just around the corner. And um, little did I know that I was right so um,this is 1979. - Transcript from VH1 Storytellers, 2000

Billy: "The most frequently asked question about "1979" is, "What is the 'ooh-ahh-ahh' sound at the end of every phrase?" Flood and I were tracking the song, and I started humming the "oohs" like a melody line. I sang them to tape, we sampled the pertinent ones, and looped them against the drum beat. One of my favorite songs from the album."
Written by Billy Corgan
Shakedown 1979, cool kids never have the time
On a live wire right up off the street
You and i should meet
Junebug skipping like a stone
With the headlights pointed at the dawn
We were sure we'd never see an end to it all
And I don't even care to shake these zipper blues
And we don't know
Just where our bones will rest
To dust i guess
Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below
Double cross the vacant and the bored
They're not sure just what we have in the store
Morphine city slippin dues down to see
That we don't even care as restless as we are
We feel the pull in the land of a thousand guilts
And poured cement, lamented and assured
To the lights and towns below
Faster than the speed of sound
Faster than we thought we'd go, beneath the sound of hope
Justine never knew the rules,
Hung down with the freaks and the ghouls
No apologies ever need be made, i know you better than you fake it to see
That we don't care to shake these zipper blues
And we don't know just where our bones will rest
To dust i guess
Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below
The street heats the urgency of sound
As you can see there's no one around

Official Releases Listen To This Song

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
The Aeroplane Flies High
1979 single
1979 video
1979 mixes
1997 Grammy award collection
Midi
RealVideo

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Band's Comments		Lyrics
The Raft: Can you isolate a song that is one of your purest songs....by "pure" I mean the point at which all of your influences, art and literature, and life and family came into perfect confluence? Billy: "I think that there's probably only been a few, a handful. I would say that Disarm on Siamese Dream, 1979 on Mellon Collie and Stand Inside Your Love on MACHINA, I'm sure there's a few more, but there's a harmony in those things that to me is awestriking, 'cause I don't really understand where that balance or that harmony comes from, 'cause it certainly didn't come from me." The Raft. Billy: I feel very naked telling all these stories. Um, 1979 was the last song written for Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. And um, as the story goes, um, the idea had been kicking around for a while. It didn't have any words except I believe, "Shakedown 1979." [chuckles] It's always the one line. And uh, we really were getting down to the end of the album and uh, there really wasn't a lot of time left and we were sort of checking the list to see if the songs we still had to work on and Flood who was producing the album, I said "I really think this song has a lot of potential" and he said "well, you've got basically 24 hours to make it happen, so either come in here tomorrow and make this song happen or, or it's not going to be on the album." So I went home that night and um, and I spent that night and the next morning writing the lyrics. I did a demo at home, I came in the next day and we did an acoustic version um, with a slightly different arrangement but basically the same song. And um, it's just one of those moments where you know that the song is a special song. And um, I can't really say why I picked the year 1979, I mean, it's as good as any other year I suppose, um, plus it sounds good in a rhyme scheme. But um, sometimes when I write a song I see a picture in my head. For some reason it's this sort of obscure memory that I have and the memory I had for this particular song was I was about 18 years old and I was driving down the road near my home and it was really heavily raining as only it can seem to rain in a gloomy way in Illinois. And I remember just sitting at a traffic light and um, and that's the memory. And I don't know why that memory sort of stayed but that's the memory I wrote the song from. That sort of feeling of um, sitting in a car at a traffic light. I know it doesn't sound very glamorous but it emotionally conotates something for me, sort of a feeling of waiting for something to happen and not being quite there yet, but it's just around the corner. And um, little did I know that I was right so um,this is 1979. - Transcript from VH1 Storytellers, 2000 Billy: "The most frequently asked question about "1979" is, "What is the 'ooh-ahh-ahh' sound at the end of every phrase?" Flood and I were tracking the song, and I started humming the "oohs" like a melody line. I sang them to tape, we sampled the pertinent ones, and looped them against the drum beat. One of my favorite songs from the album."		Written by Billy Corgan Shakedown 1979, cool kids never have the time On a live wire right up off the street You and i should meet Junebug skipping like a stone With the headlights pointed at the dawn We were sure we'd never see an end to it all And I don't even care to shake these zipper blues And we don't know Just where our bones will rest To dust i guess Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below Double cross the vacant and the bored They're not sure just what we have in the store Morphine city slippin dues down to see That we don't even care as restless as we are We feel the pull in the land of a thousand guilts And poured cement, lamented and assured To the lights and towns below Faster than the speed of sound Faster than we thought we'd go, beneath the sound of hope Justine never knew the rules, Hung down with the freaks and the ghouls No apologies ever need be made, i know you better than you fake it to see That we don't care to shake these zipper blues And we don't know just where our bones will rest To dust i guess Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below The street heats the urgency of sound As you can see there's no one around
Official Releases		Listen To This Song
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness The Aeroplane Flies High 1979 single 1979 video 1979 mixes 1997 Grammy award collection		Midi RealVideo